


love lines

by iamnotalizard



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/F, Getting Together, Palm Reading, Pining, The Rituals Are Intricate, Vaguely Modern AU, kinda theyre like... vaguely early 20s i guess lmao
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-04
Updated: 2021-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-15 10:00:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29187465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iamnotalizard/pseuds/iamnotalizard
Summary: Mai tries not to think about how nice it was to feel Ty Lee’s hand against her own, tries not to think about how it would feel to have her press kisses against her palms or feel her eyelashes fluttering against her cheek. In some ways she feels nostalgic for when they were kids when Ty Lee was equally as touchy but before she learned to respect Mai’s boundaries. What a fool she was, to establish such firm boundaries in such harsh fashions. Mai hopes that Ty Lee will trip up, hug her for too long or too tight, press a kiss against her cheek in greeting as she does for so many others.Of course, Ty Lee never does. She’s too good, cares too much about Mai’s comfort, and tries so hard to make sure that she is never the cause of distress. Mai has never been described as touchy, and she made sure that everyone knew it.She wishes she could think of a way to tell Ty Lee that she might be the only exception.--OR;Intricate Rituals Constructed To Allow Mai To Touch The Skin of Another Woman
Relationships: Mai/Ty Lee (Avatar)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 20
Collections: Avatar Rarepair Exchange 2021





	love lines

**Author's Note:**

  * For [citrina](https://archiveofourown.org/users/citrina/gifts).



> the working title for this was 'lets go lesbians'  
> also like i said in the tags theyre like... vaguely 20 in this?? idk

“Mai, give me your hand,” Ty lee says, voice piercing through Mai’s concentration easily. She lets go of the edge of her book, languidly lifting it towards Ty Lee.

“Why do-” Mai’s question is cut off when a strong tug pulls her arm and her attention. “Ty Lee, what are you doing?”

Ty Lee holds Mai’s wrist, one hand pushing back her gently curled fingers, leaning over to eye at her palm closely. 

“Stop moving!” Ty Lee says, wrestling Mai’s arm into a more convenient position. As quiet as they try to be, Mai can tell that other students are turning around in their seats, trying to get a glimpse of who’s breaking the silence of the library. “I’m trying to read your palm!”

Ty Lee finally has a grip she likes, cradling Mai’s now still palm like it’s something precious. One calloused finger traces over Mai’s skin, tickling it as the pastel pink nail follows some invisible shape. Mai swallows.

“Okay,” she says, trying to keep her voice even. She clenches her free hand into a fist and hopes that the hand that Ty Lee is holding isn’t getting as sweaty. Ty Lee studies the skin carefully, leaning in close at random. 

Mai can feel her gentle breath on her hand, and against her best wishes, she finds herself leaning closer too, trying to see whatever is catching Ty Lee’s interest for so long. 

After what feels like a thousand heartbeats, Ty Lee lets go. It takes a moment for Mai to realize that she can take her hand back.

“So, what’s the diagnosis, doctor?” Mai asks, trying as subtly as she can to wipe her hand on her jeans. Ty Lee giggles. 

“Well the lighting in here isn’t great, so I didn’t get a perfect look, but it looks pretty good to me!” She grins, and Mai almost disagrees with her statement about the lighting, because the way her lip gloss shines and reflects in the fluorescent glow almost makes her brain short circuit. 

Mai raises an eyebrow and looks at Ty Lee for a moment. Their staredown only lasts for a few seconds before Ty Lee laughs again.

“Fine! Fine! I’m still learning though,” she says, impassionedly, motioning to the various books and magazines that she’s spread out on their table, “but it looks like your success or money line was good-”

“It better be.”

“Yes, yes, I know, you’re in the sciences for the money. It looked pretty good, your lifeline looked _very_ good, no breaks! And, uh,” Ty Lee almost looks bashful, with the way she looks away, cheeks going pink, “Your marriage line is pretty short, but your love line looks good.”

“Marriage is a sham,” Mai says, automatically. She doesn’t know why her heart is beating so fast at Ty Lee mentioning love. She always seems to feel nervous at the mention of love, or dating, or romance these days, though she tries hard to hide it. Ever since she came out as gay it _feels_ like every mention is pointed at her, for some reason, like any whisper of love is meant to get a reaction out of her. 

She knows it isn’t true, knows that Ty Lee of all people would never try to wind her up or make her uncomfortable on purpose. Mai’s certain that if she voiced these feelings to Ty Lee, armchair therapist that she is, that she would receive a long lecture about becoming more comfortable with herself and her desires, how she needs to stop repressing her feelings and ‘let her heart sing’ or something like that. Just the thought of it, makes Mai try to push the thought down even more. 

“I know that you think marriage is a sham.” Ty Lee pouts and leans her chin on her propped up arm. The friendship bracelet that she forced Mai to make with her hands proudly on her wrist. Mai has to force herself to pull her eyes away from it and look back at the physics textbook that she should have been studying this entire time. “Maybe that’s why your marriage line is so much shorter than your love line.”

“I didn’t know that a marriage line existed,” Mai mutters, attempting to lose herself into equations and examples utilizing her ‘cousin Throckmorton.’ Ty Lee just hums in response, flipping back open a book of her own. They settle back into silence - a fact that those in their surrounding tables are surely thankful for - and it takes Mai a few more minutes to feel her heartbeat settle down too. 

Mai tries not to think about how nice it was to feel Ty Lee’s hand against her own, tries not to think about how it would feel to have her press kisses against her palms or feel her eyelashes fluttering against her cheek. In some ways she feels nostalgic for when they were kids when Ty Lee was equally as touchy but before she learned to respect Mai’s boundaries. What a fool she was, to establish such firm boundaries in such harsh fashions. Mai hopes that Ty Lee will trip up, hug her for too long or too tight, press a kiss against her cheek in greeting as she does for so many others. 

Of course, Ty Lee never does. She’s too good, cares too much about Mai’s comfort, and tries so hard to make sure that she is never the cause of distress. Mai has never been described as touchy, and she made sure that everyone knew it. 

She wishes she could think of a way to tell Ty Lee that she might be the only exception. 

Mai lets the thought swim around in her head as she waits for Ty Lee to finish her martial arts club. Other girls stream out of the practice room and changing room, and Mai does her best to sidestep all of them. She peers through the small crowd, trying to see the tell-tale high ponytail and pink scrunchy. The tea she’s holding is starting to burn her hand, and just as she’s about to turn to try and find a place to set it down, she sees a flurry of pink and then Ty Lee’s beaming face.

“Mai!” She cheers. Her cheeks are just as pink as her sweatshirt, and as she walks towards Mai she tries frantically to stab her dangly earrings back into her ears. It takes Mai a second to recognize them as the little daggers-earrings that she gifted her months ago. When Ty Lee gets close enough, Mai thrusts out her hand.

“I brought you that tea you like,” she says, hoping that her affection doesn’t seep into her voice. The way Ty Lee grins makes her think that maybe she failed. She doesn’t know if the thought upsets her or not. 

“Aw, you’re so sweet!”

“No, I’m not!”

“Yes, you are,” Ty Lee teases, trying again to get her earring through its hole. She reaches out with one hand to save Mai’s hand from the hot cup, and Mai doesn’t allow herself to dwell on the feeling of gentle fingers brushing against her own. 

“Want some help?” Mai asks instead. Ty Lee looks surprised for only a split second before she nods, passing her earrings to Mai’s outstretched hand. 

A thrum of excitement courses through Mai’s body as she steps closer to Ty Lee. It isn’t cute or romantic, in fact, it’s kind of gross - Ty Lee still has sweat clinging to her neck and hair, and she smells vaguely of the university gym’s foam mats. Mai carefully pushes the earrings into each of Ty Lee’s ears, taking a moment longer than necessary to ‘make sure they’re both in.’

She steps back and sees that Ty Lee is smiling, but more softly, gentler than her usual beam.

“Thank you, Mai,” she says, soft enough that Mai almost has to strain to hear it over the ruckus of other students clamouring to get to their swim practice in time. 

“Of course,” she chokes out, “Anytime.”

Mai is laying on Ty Lee’s laid out hoodie and is leaning her head on Ty Lee’s backpack. Her homework has been long abandoned as she watches Ty Lee run around with their friends on the unused field. Aang holds a frisbee, while Suki holds a baseball bat, and Katara and Sokka both seem intent to tackle each other and Zuko into the ground. Mai has long lost track of whatever game or objective they originally had but it’s still mildly entertaining. 

She watches as Ty Lee jogs over, flopping dramatically on the grass next to her. 

“Phew! What a game!” She says dramatically, not bothering to explain what the game is, and stretching in a way that reminds Mai of a cat. She turns to her side and props her head on a hand. “You doing okay over here?”

“Yes,” Mai says, flicking a piece of grass off her jeans. “I’m just resting. Class was… tiring.”

Ty Lee hums. “Well, make sure you don’t get a sunburn! It’s bright today, isn’t it?”

Mai looks up at the sky, the sun indeed shining brightly, occasionally intercepted by fluffy clouds that float lazily in the stratosphere. She looks down at her hands, curled loosely on her lap. 

“Yeah, pretty sunny.” She purses her lips. “Since the lighting is good, want to take another look at my palm?”

“Huh?” Ty Lee says, and for a moment Mai wishes the ground would swallow her whole. Of course, Ty Lee doesn’t remember, she looked at Mai’s hand weeks ago. She’s probably moved on to a different hobby, has no clue what Mai is- “Oh, yeah! Totally!”

She quickly sits up and scooches over to press herself closely to Mai’s side, snatching Mai’s hand out of her lap, and cradling it. 

“Oh, I can see all the lines much better!” She exclaims, tracing all of them gently with a manicured finger. Mai is thankful that Ty Lee is so preoccupied with her task because it allows her to close her eyes, bask in this closeness, trying to let herself feel okay with feeling. Her face feels warm, and though she knows that to a stranger she likely looks no different, she knows that if Ty Lee glances up she’ll be able to instantly see the faintest whisper of pink across her nose and ears. 

She can tell Ty Lee is almost done with her examination when she hears her let out another hum. She snaps her eyes open and lets out a calming breath, tries to look nonchalant when Ty Lee glances back up at her. 

“Money and life lines still look good,” Ty Lee says, smiling gently like she’s telling a long-con of a joke, “And look, your love line and life line are parallel to each other!”

Mai leans over and looks at her hand, eyes darting to Ty Lee’s sparkly nail polish. “What does that mean?”

“Oh, them being parallel means that you’re in control of your emotions, but since your love line starts _here-”_ She taps just below Mai’s index finger, “It means that you’ll have a happy love life!”

“Oh… that’s nice,” Mai says.

“Totally nice! And look at your wisdom line, so clear! It says you're really careful and intelligent. Look at mine, all wavy. It tells you that I don’t focus on much.” She laughs and places a hand gently on top of Mai’s. Against herself, Mai reaches out, gently tracing lines on Ty Lee’s palm even though she can’t tell one line from another. She tries to look for a line that wavers, but the heartbeat in her ears distracts her. 

All too soon, Ty Lee removes her hand and goes back to prattling away about different lines and their meanings. Mai can barely focus and doesn’t care much about the technicalities, but she enjoys the excitement that flows off of Ty Lee like an unpolluted stream and feels a warmth bloom in her chest as she cheats a few more minutes of comfort from her friend. 

Ty Lee’s dorm is much messier than Mai’s is, and with anyone else, Mai would either bully them into cleaning or not bother entering. The pile of clutter, ‘mementos’, and undeniable garbage seems to lay claim to anything that leaves a person’s hand, hiding it away so that it takes at least a few minutes of searching to find anything. In contrast, Mai’s dorm is neat, orderly, minimalistic. Her first-year roommate once looked at Mai’s pristine desk and said it looked devoid of personality. It was easy for Mai to let people assume that no personality is her personality than explain every niche caveat of the point. The sheets she brings from home at black. She brings no posters, only hangs academic photos and graphs to help her study. Mai values privacy, values the protection that a blank face and dispassionate voice give her. It’s not that Mai lacks a personality, she thinks to herself, she lacks the need - or maybe the ability - to express it to everyone. 

Ty Lee has none of those problems. Her personality drips off of everything she touches. Her room is a shrine to everything she loves in life. Ty Lee herself is a shrine to everything she loves. Mai sits at Ty Lee’s desk, shoving knickknacks to the side as she tries to make enough space for her hefty workbook. Ty Lee lays on her bed, legs kicked up in the air, staring boredly at her education textbook. When Mai can finally open her book without risking breaking any of the junk scattered on the desk, she starts working, sighing every once in a while as the work goes on and on. 

They’re about half an hour into their work when Mai’s pen dies mid-equation. She furrows her eyebrows and tries to write again, getting nothing except a small rip in the cheap paper. She scribbles at the side of the page and only sees a faint indent. She groans.

“What’s up, buttercup?” Ty Lee asks, likely taking any excuse to push aside work for a few moments. 

“Pen died,” Mai huffs, glancing around for where she put her bookbag. The number of blankets, sweaters, pillows, and scarves serve not only as a fire hazard but as excellent camouflage, even with the intense colour difference between their pink-to-orange-to-yellow hue and the dark, rich, burgundy of Mai’s bag. 

“Just take one of mine,” Ty Lee says, “I have tons of ‘em.”

“Did you shoplift them?”

“Yeah.”

“Cool,” Mai says, reaching for the first pen she sees. Like many other things in the room, it’s pink, with a plastic star sticking on its end, bobbing with every movement. Mai does a test scribble and once she can tell it works, she dives back into her work, even as it becomes obvious that Ty Lee has gotten herself distracted. 

After a few hours of studying and hanging out, Mai shoves her workbook into her now-found bag and walks across campus back to her dorm. When she takes everything out, she sees that she accidentally brought the pen with her. Walking all the way back seems pointless, and it’s not like Ty Lee would mind if she kept it. 

She tosses her workbook on her desk, and carefully arranges the pen so that it’s square with the others. 

Mai can feel her heart pounding as Ty Lee lays next to her, can feel her palms begin to sweat even as she rubs them nervously against her black sheets. Ty Lee watches the movie on the laptop screen while Mai keeps sneaking glances at Ty Lee. 

She practiced what she wanted to say, how she was going to say it, but now it feels impersonal, cold, just as cool and bland as everyone thinks she is. She knows that Ty Lee would never think that, she somehow just _knows_ how _much_ and how _big_ Mai’s feelings are even if she can’t show them.

Mai also knows that this won’t be a pointless venture. She’s repressed and scared but she’s not stupid. She knows that Ty Lee doesn’t spend the same amount of time with all her other friends, that she doesn’t try to reign herself in with anyone else, doesn’t try to wear black or burgundy or ‘edgy’ jewelry with the hopes of matching with anyone else, knows that she doesn’t send text messages with hearts for just _anyone._ Those are just for Mai. 

As comfortable as _this_ feels, as everything with Ty Lee feels, Mai knows that both of them want more. Ty Lee deserves more than just a friend with a crush. Maybe Mai deserves more too. 

Steeling herself, Mai quickly leans over and flicks on the light, causing Ty Lee to blink rapidly and say, “Hey, what’s the big idea!”

“Ty Lee, can you read my palm again,” Mai rushes out, nearly stumbling over her own words. Ty Lee tilts her head.

“Why? Palm lines don’t really change, not like horoscopes or tarot cards or-”

“I want you to look at my love line again.” Mai can feel the tips of her ears warming and resists the urge to smooth her hair over them. She sees Ty Lee’s eyes - so calm and gentle - glance at the pinkening skin. 

“Your love line?” Ty Lee repeats, a small smile appearing on her face.

Mai nods. “Yes.” 

She holds out a hand, and Ty Lee gently takes hold. She takes her time to uncurl Mai’s fingers, to trace over the lines, pressing her body into Mai’s arm.

“Your love line looks good,” Ty Lee says softly, “Predicts a happy experience.”

“Any indication on when?” Mai asks, fingers twitching under Ty Lee’s gentle care. 

Ty Lee pauses for a moment then shakes her head. “I think… that might be up to you.”

Mai nods. “Right, of course.” She takes a deep breath. “Yeah, that makes sense.”

Ty Lee looks disappointed for a moment, makes to pull her hand away when Mai reaches for it ever so slightly, lacing their fingers together. Ty Lee looks down at their entwined hands, looks back at Mai and smiles, gentle and warm. 

It takes Mai another second to calm the short circuit of her brain before she turns her head and leans towards Ty Lee. She’s pleased when Ty Lee meets her partway, and Mai can taste Ty Lee’s strawberry chapstick on her tongue, can feel the tingling of sparkles in her lip gloss and the buzz and the flutter of Ty Lee’s eyelashes against her face. 

She can tell Ty Lee is smiling. Mai thinks she might be smiling too. She surprises herself by chasing after Ty Lee’s lips when she pulls away for a moment and isn't surprised at the giggles she gets in response. Her face is warm, her heart is thudding in her chest, and she isn’t remotely in her comfort zone. Ty Lee’s hand is calloused and gentle and warm and soft, and Mai is _holding it._

Mai thinks she can get used to expressing her wants a little bit more if this is the outcome she gets. 

**Author's Note:**

> i churned this out in like 1 day oh my god i dont even KNOW what to tag this but its DONE!!!!!!!  
> anyway my atla tumblr is @shortkingzuko:^) let's go lesbians, indeed


End file.
